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What’s in a name?

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* Oldtimers still call the Aon Center the “Standard Oil Building,” so I’m wondering if this’ll ever stick…

Sears Tower will become Willis Tower.

The insurance broker announced Thursday morning that it will move to the Sears Tower and that the building will be renamed Willis Tower.

London-based Willis Group Holdings said it will consolidate five local offices into more than 140,000 square feet in the 110-story building at 233 S. Wacker Drive. Almost 500 employees will move into the building, Willis said.

Willis said the space is costing the company $14.50 a square foot and that it is not paying extra for the naming rights.

Thoughts?

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:36 am

Comments

They ought to mount a Willys jeep atop the transmitter, as a conversation piece.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:38 am
What you talkin’ bout “Willis”. It will always be Sears.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:42 am
The “Willis” tower is wishful thinking. They can name it anything they want. It will always be the “Sears” tower.

They ought to think about how easy Macy’s has had taking over the old Marshal Fields Building. No one calls it “Macy’s”.

This is a stupid idea.

Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:46 am
The Tower will be named after a company with a household name. Right now, everyone remembers Sears. If Willis becomes a household name, the Tower will be called Willis Tower.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:47 am
No, it will always be Sears. Remember, between Standard Oil and Aon, it was the Amoco Building for a while.

Good luck to the Willis employees navigating that place. Very hard to get around.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:51 am
Thats a pretty good price for downtown office space!

Things in the public mind seem to take more than a generation to change over.

Sometimes the public simply has a mind of its own. Many would not be able to tell you where the Cloud Gate” is, but nearly all would direct you to the bean…..

Time will tell whether the Willis name will stick.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:54 am
===Good luck to the Willis employees navigating that place. Very hard to get around.===

WIthout a doubt. In my younger days I was a motorcycle messenger and hated going into that building to deliver a package.

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:55 am
It would probably stick if some big news event happened there. More likely if it were some negative event. Even then, the press might report it “the former Sears Tower;” in which case, even that big news event would not have an impact.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:57 am
My post either got eaten up or deleted before I could even see it. Anyway….

Stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Ask Macy’s how re-naming a Chicago icon went for them.

And since we have “Big John”…do we now have “Big Willie”?

Comment by Concerned Observer Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:57 am
And Sam Zells thinks he can sell naming rights to Wrigley Field…

Comment by Abe's Ghost Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:58 am
Sears is far more iconic than Standard / AON. No way that this will stick with most people.

Comment by carbon deforestation Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:01 am
What you talking about Willis ?

Comment by carbon deforestation Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:02 am
Apologies to Whopee, I didn’t mean to plagiarize. I didn’t go to SIU . .

Comment by carbon deforestation Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:02 am
Times have changed. Once upon a time, the English monarch would have locked up people in the tower of London just for coming up with such a stupid idea. Too bad they have Elizabeth II instead of Elizabeth I.

Comment by fedup dem Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:04 am
Cook County Hospital is still Cook County Hospital. Comisky is still Comisky. The Sears Towers will always be the Sears Tower.

Comment by 2010 Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:11 am
The Cell, for Cellular Field (Comiskey Park), Don’t like it but people will eventually get used to the new name. Wonder if it will get a nickname like the Cell did?

Comment by Third Generation Chicago Native Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:12 am
Begging to differ. http://tr.im/hiab Only a dwindling number of ancient fusspots still say “Standard Oil Building.” Embrace the Willis (and eschew the “Whatchu talkin’ `bout” jokes.

Comment by Eric Zorn Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:13 am
Eric, some of us refuse to change. I still say Sox Park, for instance.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:14 am
They might as well try to get the US to go metric while they are at it. Perhaps in future tours of the “Willis” tower, they can tell folks how many meters they are off the ground.

Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:17 am
How about “Willis Tower @ Sears Tower” ?

Comment by Dan S, a Voter, Taxpayer and Cubs Fan Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:22 am
Just curious - was my post deleted or did i not “say it”?

Comment by 10th Indy Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:22 am
Sears Tower is a name know worldwide. It’s not going to change.

Oh, and “Whatchu talkin bout?” (It can’t be said enough)

Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:22 am
That should be “name known worldwide”

Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:22 am
what’s unbelievable is that they got naming rights for such a small part of the building, esp’ly w/o paying more

Comment by corvax Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:33 am
More importantly, the idea of painting it silver. How many cans of “silver” spray paint will that take? Tacky, tacky, tacky.

Comment by Ahem Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:35 am
This is kind of like the situation that befell the former Pan Am building in Manhattan. Teetering on financial collapse, the airline sold the building but kept the marquee……..for a while.

Then Pan Am went belly up. And the name came down (probably as part of the bankruptcy).

(Name a building after a bankrupt company? I don’t think so!)

Sears/K-Mart is rumored to be on the brink of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, no? Perhaps the Sears Tower owners (not Sears, now, by the way) know something we don’t.

(And as my bankruptcy attorney friends say — “Chapter 11 reorganization is merely a Chapter 7 straight bankruptcy that isn’t ripe yet.”)

Comment by Dooley Dudright Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:41 am
I agree with Rich, U.S. Cellular didn’t pay me a gillion dollars to call it that other name, so I still call it Comiskey or Sox Park. And it’s still 666 N. Lake Shore Drive no matter that Playboy had it changed to 680.

Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:41 am
If one more person quotes Arnold Drummond today I fear I may go postal.

Comment by I want my GOP Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:48 am
Sure - I’ll get used to calling it the Willis Tower just after I start calling the new Comiskey Field “U.S. Cellular” park. (Comiskey will probably be named something else by the time I get around to calling it that….)

Comment by HoBoSkillet Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:50 am
The Sears Tower is such an iconic name for the building that many people don’t even associate it with the company Sears. I didn’t know until reading this blog post that the Standard Oil Building was not called the Standard Oil Building, even though I obviously knew that Standard Oil became Amaco more than a generation ago (and then BP). My parents just told me that it was called the Standard Oil Building when I was young, and it’s never been questioned since.

There’s no way anyone is going to stop calling the Sears Tower the Sears Tower anytime in the next 30-50 years. That extra syllable in Willis isn’t going to help anything either.

Comment by Sacks Romana Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:50 am
New names need to be catchy to take hold. The Cell might fall into this category with younger, newer folks, but Comiskey it will ever be to natives! Ditto Marshall Field’s and the Standard Oil Building (no matter what Mr. Zorn thinks. Is he a transplant from somewhere?)

Comment by cynically anonymous Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:55 am
===Is he a transplant from somewhere?===

Yes.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:58 am
Yep, it’s still Sox Park or Comiskey for the South Siders. (Or even “Cominskey,” but not so much “the Cell.”)

“The Willis Tower” sounds like a made-up name from a soap opera. How about the Insurance Tower instead?

Comment by Lefty Lefty Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:06 pm
I know no one who refers to the White Sox’ home by the name of the current corporate sponsor. Most Sox fans I talk to call it Comiskey (or if they are of a certain age, “New Comiskey.”)

Comment by Boone Logan Square Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:09 pm
It won’t stick, and I doubt that Willis will care. Willis doesn’t need to become a household name. They are a re-insurance company (they sell insurance to insurance companies). Household name status isn’t necessary.

I’m sure the naming rights were tossed in to convince the CEO to sign off on putting their employees into the biggest terrorism target in Chicago.

Macy’s would love for people to forget the name Marshall Field’s. Unfortunately for them, they can’t even entirely remove the name from the structure. Even if people say Comiskey or Sox Park or the Cell, US Cellular still gets what it really wants out of the deal when people drive by the park or broadcast announcers refer to it as US Cellular Field.

A company that only does business with companies that already know who they are? They aren’t going to worry.

Comment by jerry 101 Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:17 pm
Fusspots (is that even a word?) like me still call the street at 4000 west Crawford, so fat chance I’ll be calling the Sears Tower the ‘Willis Tower’

Comment by Leroy Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:19 pm
Native Chicagoans tend to stick to the names they know. I think it comes from never having to change the name of the mayor — it’s almost always been Mayor Daley in my lifetime.

Comment by the Other Anonymous Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:26 pm
A rose by any other name is still a rose. The Stratton Office Building in Springfield is still the State Office Building. Sears Tower will always be the Sears Tower.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:49 pm
Sears will stick for awhile. Willis may win over eventually since it’s at least not named after a crooked politician. Now I need to go grab some lunch at the State of Illinois Building’s food court.

Comment by BigDog Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:54 pm
uk, just when I had forgotten about talkin’ and Willis, now this.

Comment by Amy Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:55 pm
“Ancient Fusspot” - That is really catchy, I’m thinking of changing my name from A Citizen to that. No! I’m just gonna stick to the old one - I just hate change.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 12:55 pm
I think Dudley has it right. Who wants to tie their building to the name of a former retail giant that is teetering on the brink of failure?
How long has it been since Sears moved everything out to Hoffman Estates anyways?

Comment by Jake from Elwood Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:02 pm
Testing, Just testing!

Comment by A Citizen (Ancient Fusspot) Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:10 pm
Little Egypt, how old are you? I’ve NEVER heard it called anything but the Stratton Building, even by older people (granted, I’ve only lived in Springpatch for 4 years).

I do, however, still hear native Springfieldians calling UIS “Sangamon State,” even though the name change is nearly 14 years old. Changing the name of something as iconic as Sears Tower is probably going to take at least 15-20 years to stick.

Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:11 pm
Will always be the Sears Tower, it’s a landmark name. Willis Tower just doesn’t sound right.

Comment by scoot Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:13 pm
I think it would be interesting to have the Sears Tower renamed the “Blagojevich Tower,” just so I can hear the national news media mispronounce it.

It doesn’t matter what they call that huge bease of a building. It will be the Sears Tower, forever.

Comment by SO ILL Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:40 pm
I will always refer to that funny looking building on LaSalle street as the State of Illinois building. Will not call it the Thompson Center. It will always be Cook County Hosp, not that other name. Naming gov’t buildings after pols still alive is not appropriate, period. Look at what it did to the already large egos of Thompson and Stroger. Willis Tower? Who’s Willis? Who cares?.

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 2:10 pm
I will still call it the Sears Tower

Comment by Bosco Mom Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 2:11 pm
Old tales have it that the Stratton Bldg. is the Only state constructed building to actually come in Under budget. But they did it by not building the last story and a half. L E I’ve also only heard it called the Stratton. The Illinois Bldg. is the Ameren CIPS in downtown Spfld. The State of Illinois Bldg. was always the 160 North LaSalle one. And the Thompson Center, of course, was always just plain ugly and a huge waste of space . . . and money.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 2:24 pm
I never refer to that awesome sports shrine on the south side as “US Cellular”. It is Comisky (even though Mr. Comisky was a tool, to use a “clean” term instead of a 4-letter word).

Always be Sears.

Comment by trafficmatt Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 2:30 pm
I’ll still call it Sears Tower. That place is a product of another era. Management should turn the bottom half into condominiums. With Ernst & Young leaving in 2012, the management sounded desperate for tenants.

Comment by Fire Ron Guenther Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 2:32 pm
It still takes me a few seconds to realize what someone is talking about if they mention the Allstate Arena.

Comment by BigDog Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 3:33 pm
just left Sears Tower and workers in the building are calling it “Wilt” WILlis Tower

Comment by Wilt the Stilt Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 3:37 pm
My Chicago grandfather died in in 2001 at the age of 82 and he went to his grave calling 4000 W not “Pulaski Rd”, but “Crawford Ave”. I think that change was made in the late ’40s. Good luck with this name-change-thing.

Comment by Ravenswood D. Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 4:11 pm
the Willis Center?! What a joke.

The Brits need to understand they are coming to CHICAGO, not San Francisco or some other city that simply sells out its traditions as the wind blows. They may be able to do it (they will own the title) but it won’t win them much public support and good luck getting tenants to support it.

Look at the problems Macy’s (Marshall Fields) is STILL having at its State Street Store. sales went down ever since the name change and have continued dropping since the economy tanked.

Comment by this old hack Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 5:03 pm
Oh, they won’t own the building. My mistake. Even worse idea. Other tenants, who have been fleeing since 9/11 due to safety concerns, won’t stand for it.

Comment by this old hack Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 5:05 pm
- this old hack -
Those dang Limeys - don’t they just tick you off? If they had any sense they would have named it Daleyham Palace or maybe Castle Stroger. Yep! No sense of where they are and tradition.

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 5:10 pm
Sears Tower Forever!
Marshall Fields Forever!
Comiskey Park Forever!
Standard Oil Building Forever!
Mr. Willis, what part of FOREVER don’t you understand?

Comment by Getting too old for this Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 6:34 pm
Secret Square - oh that was a dagger right through the heart. How old am I? And you’ve been in Springpatch for 4 years. Then you only remember the Hanley Building (IDOT). What’s the name of the lake in front of IDOT? It’s Lake Lorenz, named for Francis J. Lorenz who was the Director of the Bureau of Public Works & Buildings (predecessor of IDOT). The lake was supposed to look like the State of Illinois from the air but fell far short thanks to the design of Nick Geibel (an IDOT engineer), and thus was called Geibel Gulch. Yeah, I’ve been around for a long time and remember a lot of landmarks by their former names. Springfield has a Sears Building, at 2nd and South Grand, that used to sell the best hot dogs in the world. Now it’s a State building and I don’t have a clue what the new name is, and further, don’t care. Chicago will forever have a Sears Tower.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 6:54 pm
As a Springfield native, I remember when the “New State Office Building” (it’s full name then) was built. It replaced the other (old) State Office Building. My dad was one of the iron workers who built it. When they renamed it the Stratton Office Building, that name more or less stuck because the initials ‘SOB’ were the same.

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 8:57 pm
The old Sears Building in Springfield is now the Jesse B. Harris Building and is occupied by DHS offices. The old Sears cheese dogs survive, after a fashion, at another hot dog place in town under the name “Seers Dogs.” However, Ace Hardware still keeps the tradition alive by selling hot dogs every weekend (fastest and cheapest lunch in town, if you ask me).

Comment by Bookworm Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 11:00 pm
Just plain wrong! First Marshall Fields, now the Sears Tower?

Seems like everything that makes the City of Big Shoulders historic is up for sale.

Here’s to preserving the Windy City~

Comment by Black Ivy Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 9:23 am
$$$$!!

NO COST for naming rights? are you serious?
sheesh…who woulda thunk

see you at the parades this weekend
GO HAWKS!

Comment by 21st State Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 10:04 am
In Springpatch, the lake on the IDOT property is named after Francis J Lorenz, a former Director of the Dept. of Public Works and Buildings….the Director was Francis S Lorenz…but I didn’t think the lake was named in his behalf.

Comment by Pete Wednesday, Apr 1, 09 @ 9:33 pm